A PAIR of masked robbers who gagged and bound bar staff at a Frimley golf club before making off with £380 cash have been jailed.

Ringleader Mitchell Laidlaw, 23, who held up Pine Ridge Golf Club, was handed a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence by Judge Peter Moss, while his accomplice Kieran Beatty, 24, of Doncaster Close, Maidstone, Kent, received two years for his part in the raid.

The pair were sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on Friday (August 3).

The court heard how on the night of March 20 last year, Laidlaw burst into the bar at Pine Ridge wielding a baseball bat and demanding that supervisor Simon Price empty the till.

He then dragged Mr Price off to a nearby wood where he was tied to a tree and gagged with tape.

Judge Moss told the court it had clearly been a "terrifying" experience for the barman.

“Mr Price is a very mild mannered man who, while in control of his emotions, I have no doubt was very frightened when you marched him over to the trees," the judge told Laidlaw.

He added that the prosecution’s case was that Laidlaw had "acted with Ms Mawtus", who was working at the club on the night of the robbery.

But she was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery by a jury at Guildford Crown Court on July 11.

'Not greed'

Judge Moss went on to explain Laidlaw and Beatty’s relationship with Ms Mawtus and her millionaire father Michael Mawtus, once of computing giant IBM.

“You had both been living off her parental income,” he said, adding this was probably an attempt by Ms Mawtus to "advance her relationship" with Laidlaw.

“You each told her father you were serving soldiers to gain his trust," the judge added.

The pair claimed to have seen active service but the court heard how Laidlaw had only completed engineering training with no evidence of having had any paratroop training, unlike Beatty who served in Iraq.

Defending Laidlaw, Stuart Weston said his client was already resigned to a custodial sentence.

“It is not a question of greed,” he said. “It was a desperate time for him, but this in no way excuses his behaviour.

“He is still a young man though, and in the circumstances why not give him some light at the end of the tunnel?”

'Genuinely ashamed'

Beatty’s defence counsel, James Wind, explained how his client's problems started when he left the army.

“His father fell ill with swine flu and pneumonia while his partner cheated on him and later told him their son was not his,” he said.

“All his problems come from leaving the army. He couldn’t cope with civilian life and spent the winter sleeping rough. He had no money, no prospects, no work and no-one on whom he could rely.”

Referring to the events of March 20, Mr Wind denied Beatty had played a "significant part" in the robbery.

“His job was merely to make sure nobody turned up at the club,” he told the court. “He was the most peripheral.”

Interrupting, Judge Moss reiterated that Beatty’s presence was not accidental.

“He knew about the plans and who the victims would be. To say he was a peripheral is pushing it too far,” the judge said.

Mr Wind added in response: “He was not the architect. He was the last to get involved in the enterprise and is a man easily dominated by other figures.”

Mr Wind added Beatty was "genuinely ashamed" of what he had done.

“He needs authority in his life. The longer he spends in prison, the more institutionalised he will become. He is a young man making efforts to put this behind him – he is still a man with hope.”